For the legislative and political week of May 25-May 29
Welcome to the May 25 issue of the NFIB California Main Street Minute a correspondence to the NFIB family of members, leadership council, and field sales representatives from their small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento. Not an NFIB member? Join right here.
Hot Topics
- Next Webinar: This Wednesday, May 27, 9 a.m. PT. Topic: PPP Loan Forgiveness Application: A Step by Step Briefing for Small Businesses. Presented by: Elizabeth Milito, Senior Executive Counsel, Legal Foundation, NFIB, Holly Wade Director, NFIB Research Center, Sandra Finch, CPA, CFP. RSVP Here.
- Looming Power Struggle?
- Two quotes from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office makes one wonder: “In a number of areas across the budget, the governor makes proposals that raise serious concerns about the legislature’s role in future decisions” … and … “We urge the Legislature to jealously guard its constitutional role and authority.” The remarks were published here.
- Che Salinas, Governor Newsom’s chief deputy legislative affairs secretary, and Isabel Guzman, the governor’s small business advocate, were the latest guests in a series of conference calls exclusively for NFIB California members. The May 21 call brought small-business owners the latest information on state resources available to them and answered a few questions on SBA loans. An audio of the call will be posted this week on the NFIB California webpage.
- Last Friday, an initiative sponsored by Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash to have their drivers excluded from Assembly Bill 5’s restrictions on independent contractors qualified for the November ballot. NFIB’s position all along has been, and will continue to be, that all independent contractors should be excluded, not just select ones.
- In a research brief released last week by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau California, it pegged Governor Newsom’s COVID-19 executive order “providing for a rebuttable presumption of compensability for all workers directed by their employer to work outside the home” at $600 million to $2 billion.
- Another busy week in the media for NFIB and its members. Bloomberg quoted NFIB member Erin Arnold, owner of the Avid Reader bookstore in Davis, about her sales and workload since the coronavirus struck. State Director John Kabateck penned a guest editorial for Fox&Hounds calling on backers of the California Privacy Rights Act to withdraw their ballot initiative, and at the start of last week, Kabateck provided comment to Association Press TV on the flow of Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Nationally
- Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate met but failed to pass a bill providing flexibility to the Paycheck Protection Program. NFIB’s letter of support for greater flexibility can be read here.
- NFIB’s extensive poll of its members showing more than half of them expecting total PPP loan forgiveness, and many other findings, received wide national play.
California Main Street Minutes are published every Monday and put on the NFIB California webpage. Two additional updates are published the first and third Wednesday of each month for inclusion in the first and third Thursday newsletters. Next California Main Street Minute is June 1.
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